


Picture Print Christmas

by OwlWaterLogged



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: AS IS HER RIGHT, Christmas, Domestic Fluff, Holiday Shenanigans, M/M, Mentions of Yule, Now with recipe!, and Samhain, author knows little to nothing about pagan holidays, or early christianity christmas, or the catholic church, rating because Andy cusses, sns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28423041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OwlWaterLogged/pseuds/OwlWaterLogged
Summary: When you're living with a woman that probably witnessed the Christmas star and shrugged, an ex-Catholic priest, and his semi-practicing Muslim husband, you tend not to expect much of the holiday season. Good news for Nile, Christmas got commercialized and is fully on the table for the team.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Nile Freeman, Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Nile Freeman, Basically the whole team being domestic, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Nile Freeman & Nicky | Nicolo di Genoa, minus those who are exiled
Comments: 27
Kudos: 158





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Happy holidays folks! This was a fun break from Buried in Code (don't worry to anyone who follows that, I'm working on the next chapter. It's coming, I promise). This was basically a game of 'how many traditions and experiences as a military brat can Owl squish into a oneshot' and the answer is - a lot. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I did minimal research for this! This was for fun and not accuracy. I'm not trying to portray current holidays as inferior to the origins or visa versa. I get that many/all of Christian holidays are based in the appropriation of pagan holidays. If you're here to get angry about stuff, maybe go scream on twitter first. I live by dldr. Thank you for being courteous.
> 
> Title came from the song Sleigh Ride

Holidays in the Freeman household were an Event. Throughout her childhood, every holiday was heralded with equal parts delight and glamor. Each one came with their own decorations and designated treats. On paper, it had always sounded like the world’s most regimented celebrations, but it had really been whirl-winds of chaos in the current holiday’s themed colors. Whenever they’d moved, their mom had made certain that the moving truck had packed things so that the holiday boxes were the first unloaded upon arrival at their new house. The boxes would be handed off to Nile and her brother and they’d be assigned to go crazy on the blank walls.

Even if the actual holiday period was spent surrounded by boxes and with a distinct lack of ability to use the kitchen, they’d gather around with themed Pillsbury sugar cookies and play games, sing, and watch silly movies.

Nile had loved every minute of it.

The implications of suddenly being immortal and living with a group of people that made her grandparents look young hadn’t settled in until October came around. Nile had died her first time just as summer was starting to ramp up in Afghanistan, which was also during the holiday dead-zone between Memorial Day and the 4th of July. After dying, things had been happening so fast that Nile had completely missed the 4th slipping by (being outside of the US or a military base aided in this) and then they were in Dead-Zone #2, which stretched all the way to Halloween.

When the holiday season had finally rolled around, Nile had watched for any indication that the group would be celebrating anything and was met with disappointment. On October 31st Joe took over the kitchen in their current safehouse and whipped up an amazing spread of dishes, which he presented to Andy and then watched with anticipation as she sampled each one. Once she had made a circuit of the table, she’d sat down and sighed.

“Sorry Joe,” she’d said with a smile, “you had to have been there to understand it.”

Joe had collapsed into his own seat with a defeated grown, his head in his hands. Nicky had given him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, but had been smiling in amusement the whole time.

Andy laughed, “but the goat is closer to what I remember.”

With a noncommittal grumble, Joe started serving the rest of them while Nicky chuckled at the whole ordeal. While Joe dished up a plethora of meats and root vegetables, Nicky explained, “Before we joined the group, Andy and Quynh were traveling in the north. They were there long enough to celebrate Samhain several times.” He smiled the way he always did when telling the happier stories from their past. “Andy became rather partial to it.”

“What can I say,” Andy smiled around a large mouthful of roasted turnip, “I like dancing around big fires.”

The group had then launched into stories about witnessing the evolution of the holiday to its current state of capitalist driven gaudiness. After that, Nile had wondered if all their holidays were going to be historical antecedents about America’s economy driving sacred holidays into the ground.

At Thanksgiving, Nile determined the answer was _‘Yes.’_

The dinner had been great. Nicky made an amazing turkey, which was surprising since none of them were American (Nile had actually been prepared for them to ignore this one due to the lack of national ties to the tradition). Over homemade bread and sweet potato casserole (the kind with the crust _and_ the marshmallows – turns out Andy has an incurable sweet tooth), they’d explained that they appreciated the idea of celebrating the togetherness. “The genocide that followed, not so much,” Joe had added, which had led to them talking about how they’d apparently _been_ to America several times by the time pilgrims showed up.

“Before, we had traveled with Viking traders,” Nicky explained, “but at the time Columbus was ‘finding’ the new continent, we were rather occupied with other things.”

The room had gotten quiet for a while after that. It didn’t take a genius to do the math and figure out that that had been around the time the team was working the witch trials.

So, with all those happy thoughts in mind, Nile hadn’t been expecting much from Christmas.

At home, the day after Thanksgiving was dedicated to prepping the house for the incoming holiday. Space was made in the living room for the tree, Thanksgiving decorations were packed up, and the red and green storage totes were brought down. On Saturday, they’d decorate the whole house while one of their parents fluffed up the tree branches, flattened from their time in a box.

The Saturday after her first Thanksgiving with the team, they ate some leftovers and Nicky made a grocery run.

Nile tried to remember that she was now living with a several-thousand-year-old atheist, a Muslim, and a former Catholic priest. If they did celebrate Christmas, it would probably have looked nothing like her childhood.

As much as she tried, the thought didn’t comfort her.

Which was why waking up December 1st and walking into the living room of the safehouse felt similar to being hit point-blank in the head. At first, Nile thought that she was still dazed from coming back the day before during their mission, but after blinking a few times and rubbing her eyes for good measure, Nile came to the conclusion that, yes, what she was seeing was real.

There was garland _everywhere._

And ribbons.

And lights.

_So many lights._

There were enough lights stringing _everything_ that the overheads were superfluous. It was so over the top it bordered on gaudy. It was exactly what Nile had first thought of when her mom had explained to her what the line in _Sleigh Ride_ meant when it mentioned Currier and Ives.

It was ridiculous.

It was perfect.

She was going to cry.

Before she could start, Nicky materialized out of nowhere and planted a kiss on her cheek.

“You’re under the mistletoe, passerotta,” he said and pressed a red mug with a candy cane in it into her hands before moving back towards the kitchen.

It took Nile a moment to realize that Nicky was wearing a Christmas sweater. It was blue and red and had white reindeer knit into it and Nile was probably about to ascend to a higher plane of existence, because this one had ceased making any sense.

On a step ladder by the entry into the kitchen, Joe – also in a sweater inversed of Nicky’s, and with the addition of a Santa hat – was doing something with the garland framing the doorway. After a bit more fiddling, the lights twined into the garland lit up, casting the door in a soft white glow. Getting down from the ladder, he took a step back and inspected his work. Seeming pleased with it, he turned to Nile.

“Good morning!” he beamed, also giving her a peck on the cheek. “Nicky’s just about done making breakfast. Don’t trip on Andy, and –“ he pointed to her mug, “- I’d drink that before it goes cold.”

Nile looked down at the mug which was filled with probably the prettiest drink she’d ever been handed outside of an artisanal café. Whatever it was had a perfect spiral of thick whipped crème on top, with chocolate shavings, ground up candy cane, and pearlescent glitter dust – it was most likely a crime to consume something this pretty.

Nile did anyway.

What the drink turned out to be was the richest peppermint hot cocoa she had ever consumed. The chocolate was perfectly balanced with the mint and not too sweet; Nile couldn’t help the groan that rose up within her as she took another sip. If this strange parallel world she’d woken up in continued to have drinks like this, she was staying here, and no one could do anything to change her mind.

Looking around the room more carefully, Nile now saw that the garland really was framing _every_ wall and doorway. Lights had been strung through each strand along with ribbon. There was a real tree set up where the tv used to be (where it was now, Nile had no clue and really couldn’t care at the moment). The tree only had lights on it, but no decorations. Thankfully, there were two storage boxes next to the tree that implied decorations were yet to come. In Nile’s book, there was nothing worse than a naked tree.

Sitting on the ground of the living room crisscross was the aforementioned tripping-hazard Andy.

From the look of her ruffled hair, one of the boys (or both of them) had forced the Scythian into a matching Christmas sweater, this one primarily red with green stripes. Instead of reindeer, there were bears marching around it. It was very fitting. A mug of cocoa had been deposited in her hands as well.

However, all this was barely noticed thanks to the bright red present bow someone had stuck to Andy’s forehead. The experience had apparently caused Andy to completely freeze up in a manner that instantly had Nile thinking of the cat that couldn’t handle a flower being put on its head.

Nile was deeply tempted to snap a few pictures, but she held back because she wasn’t completely sure Andy was breathing – the only visible motion from her was an occasional twinge of the muscles under her left eye.

Taking pity on the eldest of their group, Nile crouched down and carefully peeled off the ribbon.

Andy’s eyes locked in on Nile, but she remained absolutely still and didn’t say anything.

“So,” Nile began slowly, “this is… a lot.”

Andy brought the mug to her lips and took a long, slow drag off it. When she set the mug back down, she had a whipped crème mustache that she wasn’t quite quick enough to lick off before Nile saw it.

A grin spread across Nile’s face while Andy’s eyes narrowed. The other woman was lucky that she was too distracted by the decorations, otherwise the crème-stache would have fueled teasing for _days_. Thankfully, there were other things to talk about.

“So, not to sound self-centered, but please tell me this,” Nile waved a hand around in no particular direction (because ‘this’ was in _every_ direction), “isn’t all because of me.”

One of Andy’s fine eyebrows raised as she took another sip off her cocoa.

Nile continued, “Like a ‘we want to make the new kid feel welcomed to the team so we’re gonna go all out on Christmas for her’ type deal? Because if so, that’s really sweet, but I can adapt.” It would be painful, and she didn’t _want_ to adapt, but she’d been serving overseas, and her tour of duty wouldn’t have been up until the following spring, so she’d been prepared to do the holidays differently. “You guys don’t have to force the holidays for me.”

Andy sighed, hoisted herself onto her feet, and looked around the room with a slightly pained expression. “As much as I wish this was a gesture of welcome for you, this has been a yearly thing for the last…” she paused to think on it for a moment, “2 centuries? Since Christmas got commercialized basically.”

The looming feeling of dread that this would all be a 1-year thing that had been hovering behind Nile dissipated immediately and was replaced by sheer euphoria.

“We typically leave holidays alone, but Joe can be a bit of a magpie sometimes – fucking loves shiny stuff,” Andy added with a mutter.

“Just don’t get attached to the tree.” Nicky walked out of the kitchen carrying a platter of pastries.

Nile looked between the Italian setting out breakfast, the tree, and Andy whose eyes had suddenly seemed lit from within with a manic glee.

“The tree?” she asked hesitantly.

“It’s part of our agreement,” Joe elaborated, joining the group. “Andromache doesn’t destroy the Christmas cheer, and we don’t stop her from burning the tree.”

Nile froze.

“What?!”

“All this,” Joe motioned to the garlands and tree, “is hers come the 26th.”

“With you here, we should have enough hands to save all the lights and ornaments this year,” Nicky grumbled.

Andy was staring at the tree as though she could already see the fire lit beneath it.

“That is horrifying,” Nile said.

“Eh,” Joe shrugged. “It’s fair enough. If she had her way, the tree would burn on the 21st. She holds off for our benefit.” He wrapped an arm around Andy’s shoulders and pulled her into a half hug. “And we are very grateful for her patience.”

Shrugging off his arm, Andy made her way over to the table and pastries. “It’s like I always say –“

“It’s not a party unless there’s a giant fire,” the boys chimed in with the air of a long-standing joke.

The group unanimously made the unspoken decision to start in on the breakfast spread and sat down. While reaching for a cheese pastry, Nicky mentioned, “As fun as the bonfires were, I much prefer this to my own original traditions.”

Which immediately piqued Nile’s interest. It must have been obvious, because before she could clear her mouth of flaky dough and jam, Nicky was already obliging her curious stare.

“Before I left for the war, Christmas was a reason for the Church to hold daily services with more singing, longer sermons, and larger tithes. Looking back on it, it was… exhausting.” He sighed and looked around the room, “Beautiful, but so exhausting. I will take stringing branches and light together over daily cleaning thousands of candles worth of dripped wax anytime.”

Nile could only imagine what that had been like, but she might not have to imagine for long; when they had arrived at the safehouse the evening before, Nicky had mentioned that the monastery his parents had sent him to was relatively close by. There was a chance they might stop by later.

“Well, you won’t have to go so big next year,” Andy commented, leaning back in her chair with a second danish. “Nile said we didn’t have to go all out on Christmas, so the vote is finally in my favor.” She said it all with a very pleased look about her, like a cat preening after eating the pet canary.

Joe and Nicky both looked to Nile with mixed expressions of betrayal, shock, and crushed hopes and dreams.

“Oh, no.” Nile could see where Andy might have picked up the impression, but it was so far from reality that she had to set the record straight immediately. “Christmas is _huge_ in my family. This… this is perfect.” She looked around the room again. “ _More_ than perfect.” And since they were now thoroughly on the topic of decorations… “Can we make cookies? And when do you decorate the tree? Also, where is my matching sweater?”

Around the table, mixed cheers and shouts went up – triumphant crows of joy from Joe and Nicky, and a horrified wail of anguish from Andy. Joe disappeared into one of the rooms and reappeared carrying a gift bag which he presented to Nile with a flourish.

Grinning like a fool, Nile reached into the bag and pulled out what she now realized was some high quality knit wool. Like the rest of the group, it followed a similar Nordic pattern of alternating colors – hers being primarily red with green accents, inversed of Andy’s – and trees and snowflakes, but where there were reindeer circling Joe and Nicky’s sweaters and bears on Andy’s, Nile’s had –

“Are those crocodiles?” she asked, purely delighted.

Joe threw his head back and laughed while Nicky gave an exasperated sigh and said “I truly wish you hadn’t told us about that childhood nickname. They are horrible creatures.”

Sticking her tongue out at Nicky, Nile stood to give Joe a hug after pulling the sweater over her shirt. “Well I think it’s perfect.”

When her head popped out of the neck hole of the sweater, Joe plopped his Santa hat on her.

“There will be cookies but that comes closer to Christmas day. The tree comes later today before we start the movie marathon.”

Beside her, Nicky added, “I hope you like the claymations.”

“Ever made a gingerbread house?” she asked.

The two met her with mirrored smiles of complete glee.

Andy stood up from her place at the table. “If you all are going to act like sugared up toddlers for the next 25 days, I’m breaking into the eggnog early.” As she made her way towards the kitchen, she was grumbling, “This is the thanks I get for saving pregnant ladies riding shitty donkeys from getting fucking mugged.”

It took a moment for her mutterings to fully process in Nile’s brain.

“Wait. _What?!”_

_-Bonus-_

Booker looked up when his phone announced an incoming message. At first, he ignored it, but then another message arrived, and another. Curiosity peaked, he flipped it over and checked his notifications.

Andy had send a picture.

Opening it, he nearly spat out his drink.

The group were all squished on a couch in complimentary sweaters and reindeer antlers. Nicky, Joe, and Nile were all beaming with the strength of three suns while Andy looked grudgingly happy, her hands wrapped around what was no doubt a cup of Nicky's homemade eggnog (extra strength).

The messages underneath the image read:

_enjoy the freedom_

_the elves hold voting majority_

Booker reached for his glass, signalling the bartender for another round.

100 years was suddenly seeming like a gift in disguise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> passerotta - little bird/sparrow (an endearment for kids, I guess? If I got this wrong, please someone tell me. I was using someone's blog post and it was also casually throwing around 'amore' which had me breaking out in nervous hives).
> 
> Thank you to Einnaopaline for betaing! You tolerate my love affair with commas with such patience. 
> 
> And thank you to everyone for reading! If you enjoyed this, please dropping a comment and/or kudo - they feed my soul.


	2. Nicky's Dark Chocolate Peppermint Hot Cocoa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Recipe for the hot chocolate mentioned in the story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Our country finally went fully tits up, so I decided that we all deserved a cup of Nicky's hot cocoa. If you don't want to hear me prattle for 21 minutes on how to make this, just scroll down to the recipe. Either way - ENJOY!

**Ingredients** :

**Whipped Cream**

  * ~1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
  * 1 Tbsp white sugar (more or less to preference of taste)
  * 1 tsp alcohol of choice (optional)
  * 1/8 tsp luster powder (optional)



**Hot Chocolate**

  * 2 Tbsp dark cocoa powder
  * 2 Tbsp brown sugar
  * 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
  * 1 cup whole milk
  * 1/3 cup heavy cream
  * 1 egg yolk
  * 1/4 tsp peppermint extract
  * pinch of salt
  * chocolate shavings
  * luster powder
  * candy cane



**Instructions** :

**Whipped Cream**

  1. Begin whipping the heavy cream in a bowl with an electric mixer on high while incorporating the sugar until the cream begins to form soft peaks. (If you are not adding the luster, continue whipping until to wanted stiffness) Set aside for a moment
  2. In a small bowl or shot glass, whisk together the alcohol and luster. Pour into half-whipped cream
  3. Continue whipping cream until to preferred stiffness. Set aside or refrigerate while you make the hot chocolate



**Hot Chocolate**

  1. In a bowl, whisk together cocoa powder and brown sugar
  2. Add 4-5 Tbsp of the milk to dry mix and whisk to make a slurry. Keep whisking until all lumps have dissolved
  3. In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt chocolate chips in approx a third of the heavy cream. Keep the chocolate moving until all chucks have melted
  4. Add half of the remaining cream and mix until fully incorporated. Add remaining cream and repeat
  5. Add chocolate/sugar slurry and mix
  6. Add remaining milk and mix
  7. Continue to heat and stir until the mix begins to steam - at this point, turn the heat down to low
  8. Have the egg yolk in a small bowl and keep it moving while stirring in small quantities of the hot chocolate mix (approx 2-3 Tbsp)
  9. Add egg/chocolate mix to sauce pan. Continue stirring over medium heat either to desired thickness, or until small bubbles form on the edge of the pan (NOTE: do not allow the mix to be brought to a full boil)
  10. Remove from heat and add salt and peppermint extract then pour into a mug
  11. Pipe or spoon whipped cream on top of hot chocolate. Garnish with chocolate shavings, luster, and candy cane
  12. Enjoy!



**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a completely 100% original recipe by me. I took inspiration from French and Viennese hot chocolates as well as several other gourmet recipes I looked up online. I tried Italian hot chocolate once, but once was enough. If any of you make some variation and you think the rest of us might enjoy it, please feel free to leave it in the comments! I'd love to see how you make this recipe your own!


End file.
